Facebook and other tech giants are often seen as disrupting the news industry, but the social network says it wants to help and is teaming up with Toronto’s Ryerson University to encourage Canadian innovation in the space.

The Digital News Innovation Challenge is a three-way partnership between Facebook Inc., Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone (DMZ) and the Ryerson School of Journalism that will give five chosen startups five rigorous months of incubating, training and funding to help manage digital disruption in Canada’s news sector.

Announced Tuesday, the Canada-wide program’s goal is to find innovative ways to create new platforms, distribution methods and content within the industry. Applications open on Jan. 25, 2018 and close March 9, with the eventual five winners gaining access to industry mentors, networking opportunities, space at the DMZ, up to $100,000 in seed funding and a $50,000 Facebook marketing budget.

“We are super excited about this and being able to work with a group like Facebook to be able to support new, innovative entrepreneurs and companies that want to grow in this space,” said Abdullah Snobar, executive director of the DMZ.

“As times are changing in the world of media and innovation, we thought we could support and work with Facebook and help new companies by coming to the DMZ and giving them access to mentors, advisors, potential customers, investors and to a fantastic community that they can work and grow in.”

Founded in 2010 and based out of Toronto, the DMZ has been ranked as the leading university-based incubator in North America and third in the world by the incubator network UBI Global.

For the Digital News Innovation Challenge, the DMZ will be providing access to resources from “some of the top people in the country” with very focused and hands-on mentorships, Snobar said. Having space in the DMZ also means being part of an incubator environment that leads to learning from other startups, interacting with investors and networking.

“The DMZ is a not-for-profit, so when we are helping companies our ultimate measure of success is around economic and social prosperity. Supporting new companies be able to come in and shift the way news is being published and shared… is going to be a huge gain for us,” he said.

Facebook Canada will be providing the seed capital — $100,000 for each of the five winners — as well as the $50,000 in marketing budget. The company will also have its full-time news partnerships employee be part of the selection committee with Ryerson, as well as help provide relationships and expertise in the five-month curriculum for the winners.

“We’ve heard a lot about the challenges facing the news business and that has a lot to do with the transition to digital,” said Kevin Chan, head of public policy for Facebook Canada.

“We know it is a space that has faced significant disruption, so we ask what can we can do together with experts in news and journalism at the journalism school, and how can the three of us work together to find potentially interesting ideas for digital and how to accelerate them to a path of scalability and sustainability?”

In January, Facebook announced the Facebook Journalism Project, which the company said is used to find new and better ways to work with the news industry. Chad said the just-announced Digital News Innovation Challenge is “one very concrete way in which we will be working closely with the news sector as well as the innovation sector” in the country.

Matthew Staver/Bloomberg

Recently, there has been growing concern by users and the media about social media giants having too much control over the news, but both Facebook and the DMZ said this initiative is an equal partnership.

“We are first and foremost a platform for friends and family to connect with, but it is the case that Canadians are using Facebook to engage and share news. By virtue of that, we take our responsibility seriously,” Chan said. “That’s where our involvement comes in. We are doing this because we do take our role seriously and we want to help find innovative ideas out there that can hopefully give a fence of where the path forward might be in terms of digital news innovation.”

Facebook, the DMZ or Ryerson School of Journalism aren’t “taking a dominant role,” Snobar said, adding that the tech giant is setting a good message for how a partnership should be managed.

“We’re excited about it all,” he added. “It’s necessary. The way that we have seen disruption happen in law, finance, insurance, AI or health, it is the same kind that needs to happen in news. So I think it will be well received with lots of good coming out of it.”